


The Johnlock Arc: Timeline and Progression

by wellthengameover



Series: Sherlock Meta [2]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Character Analysis, First Kiss, Meta, Other, Season/Series 04, Season/Series 05, Sherlock Meta, Story: The Adventure of the Three Garridebs, TJLC | The Johnlock Conspiracy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-16
Updated: 2015-11-16
Packaged: 2018-05-01 23:39:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5225588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wellthengameover/pseuds/wellthengameover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We’re going to get textually confirmed, passionately snogging Johnlock. But I don’t think it’s going to be soon. I know that everyone thinks we’ll get Johnlock in the season four finale and then a season of consulting husbands, but I don’t think we can. Stick with me.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Johnlock Arc: Timeline and Progression

We’re going to get textually confirmed, passionately snogging Johnlock. But I don’t think it’s going to be soon. I know that everyone thinks we’ll get Johnlock in the season four finale and then a season of consulting husbands, but I don’t think we can. Stick with me.

**_Without a kiss on the mouth, no matter what Sherlock or John say, including the words “I love you,” some people will still see_ _it as platonic. Therefore, I’m determining “canon Johnlock” to be the first kiss: the point where absolutely no one can deny it anymore._**

I _do_ think we’ll get [_The Three Garridebs_ in the season four finale](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/96502039387/the-season-four-finale-the-three-garridebs-much). _But I don’t think that’s enough to get Johnlock._ It’ll be a huge step, but I don’t think it’ll resolve things.

## There is _so_ much miscommunication between them, I don’t think it can be resolved in the number of episodes we have until the S4 finale. **  
**

Honestly, I think it can barely be resolved by some time in S5. It’s not just “miscommunication;” it’s miscommunication that’s been ingrained in their natures.

As [brienne-the-blue says](http://brienne-the-blue.tumblr.com/post/100712494845/aaaaand-when-he-realizes-what-sherlock-is-doing): 

> aaaaand when he realizes what Sherlock is doing
> 
> like this is so devastating, like he’s told himself over and over “he doesn’t feel things that way”, and it’s always been a sort of source of comfort for him, “it’s not ME, he doesn’t feel that way about ANYBODY”, but then it did seem like he felt that way about someone and it hurt so much, but then it was all a ruse, it was all fake, John can never trust anything Sherlock says ever again, if you think he’s just going to believe it when Sherlock either confesses or kisses him or whatever in the Three Garridebs scenario, nO HE IS NOT
> 
> _BECAUSE OF **THIS**_

## I think what “The Three Garridebs” is going to do is get John to start considering that Sherlock does “feel things like that.” But that’s still a ways off from full Johnlock.

Sherlock’s got issues, too: Sherlock deduced John’s feelings at the wedding, but he only thinks John’s interested in Sociopath-Genius Sherlock, which will make him _more_ reluctant to show John Real Sherlock. Obviously, he was pretty open on the tarmac, but he thought he was going to his death, so he had nothing to lose.

The reason their miscommunication is _so_ bad is because it feeds off each others’. John can’t handle seeing Sherlock be how he so desperately wants him to be if it’s not real, so he shuts Sherlock down when Sherlock tries to open up (ex: THoB), which makes Sherlock think John only likes Sociopath-Danger-Genius Sherlock, which makes him all the more determined to continue to be like that so that John will stay, which makes John sure that Sherlock really _is_ like that, which makes him unwilling/unable to see it when Sherlock tries open up because he can’t let himself think it’s real… You see the problem. So I think “The Three Garridebs”is going to break that cycle, but that doesn’t necessarily establish a new pattern right away. I think “The Three Garridebs” gives them the opportunity to reevaluate what they thought they knew about each other, and _that_ will lead to Johnlock.

In S1, S2, or even very early in S3, this show could’ve followed the storyline where the two leads get together romantically but they still have issues/miscommunications to work out, which they do while they’re still together. At this point, though, I don’t think that can happen anymore. Nearly all - or quite possibly just all - of John and Sherlock’s issues with each other would disappear if they actually admitted their full feelings for each other: then John would know Sherlock really does “feel things like that” and Sherlock would know John values him for more than the work. The fact that they can’t/won’t talk about how they feel is fueling this show. Mofftisson can’t resolve the tension before the end of the show or the show would be really boring, and they can’t get together at this point without resolving the tension. Ergo they can’t get together before close to the end. If they had gotten together earlier - say, kissed in TRF - then the story could have them together but John still thinks Sherlock doesn’t “feel things like that” and Sherlock thinks John just values him for the work, but at this point, everything is so built up that it’s all going to come out at once. 

I know that the writers love married!lock and Gatiss has talked about a detective drama where the main detective comes home to his boyfriend. But I think that’s the direction they were going with the pilot, and that’s the change they made. _**  
**_

## For the vast majority of viewers, Johnlock in the S4 finale would not be “softly, softly.”

It should be - if this were a heterosexual couple, everyone would’ve seen this coming in ASiP - but it’s not.

We tend to think of the people who don’t believe in Johnlock as people who ship a different ship …[ but that’s not true. Those people have at least _heard_ of Johnlock. The vast majority of viewers are casual, and they haven’t. They haven’t even considered it](http://lickedlipssinkships.tumblr.com/post/128128739952/google-trends-the-sherlock-fandom). TJLC was invented by people who are:

  * majorly invested in the show
  * willing to think beyond the surface level
  * gay/bi/pan/ace/trans themselves and/or educated about such things



_None_ of which applies to the general audience. We only just figured out TJLC ourselves. LSiT has got to be about the biggest TJLC blog there is, with apparently about 15K followers. The _overnight_ viewing figure for HLV was 8.7 _million_. So the number of people even considering TJLC right now is literally negligent.

Johnlock in S4 would basically come out of nowhere for casual viewers. It would feel like a total narrative direction 180. They think John is happily married and Sherlock really is a sociopath, and so - even _besides_ any reservations about viewing a queer relationship - it just wouldn’t make sense to them. The majority of people don’t see it… yet _._ They should, but they don’t.

Obviously, there’s no way to convince everyone, but there are a good number of people who wouldn’t be against it but are just uneducated and don’t notice it: those people can be convinced. But not if it comes as - what they feel is - a surprise. It has to be _so obvious_ because Johnlock is basically “thinking outside the box” for a lot of people. It doesn’t even ping on their radar. “Softly, softly” - in my opinion - means that viewers will figure out Johnlock for themselves _before_ it becomes canon (at least subconsciously). So when it happens, they’re like “Oh, yeah. That makes sense.” That’s how you convince people of things: make them think it was their idea.

That’s not where most people are at, not even close, and I don’t think we’ll be at that point by the S4 finale. I think “The Three Garridebs” is supposed to be the point at which the casual viewer first considers Johnlock as a viable option. Like: “That was very… _strong_ for platonic. That was platonic… wasn’t it? I mean… he said he loves him, but that was just… Actually… _now that I think about it_ …” Because I think it would take something as big as “The Three Garridebs"to make Johnlock ping on most people’s radar. And then they have a couple of episodes to sort of mull it around in their mind, and then when it happens, _it makes sense to them_ , so they support it.

## I don’t think The Johnlock Kiss fits in “The Three Garridebs.”

I know a lot of people really love this idea, but I don’t think it fits with the tone Mofftisson have set up. It has to do with the fact that _it’s not a detective show; it’s a show about a detective._

I think about the really moving moments of the show:

>   
> 
> 
> JOHN _(quietly)_ : Who … who the hell knows about Sherlock Holmes, but – for the record – if anyone out there still cares, I’m not actually gay.  
>  IRENE: Well, I _am_. Look at us both. ([x](http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/28834.html))
> 
> SHERLOCK: Nobody could be that clever.  
>  JOHN: _You_ could. ([x](http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/28834.html))
> 
> JOHN: No, please, there’s just one more thing, mate, one more thing: one more miracle, Sherlock, for me. Don’t … be … _(his voice breaks and fills with tears)_ … dead. Would you do …? Just for me, just stop it. _(He gestures down at the grave.)_ Stop this. ([x](http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/28834.html))
> 
> SHERLOCK: Well, you’re hardly gonna need _me_ around now that you’ve got a _real_ baby on the way. ([x](http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/28834.html))
> 
> JOHN _(his voice full of suppressed tears)_ : But she wasn’t supposed to _be_ like that.Why is she like that?  
>  SHERLOCK: Because you _chose_ her. ([x](http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/28834.html))
> 
> SHERLOCK: To the very best of times, John. ([x](http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/28834.html))

What comes next in that series of pictures isn’t this:

It’s closer to this:

I picked these two pictures because, at first glance, they look very similar, but on closer inspection, they really aren’t. If you’ve seen both movies, you know that the immediate cause of the first one is “We’re destroying Voldemort and we almost died” and the immediate cause of the second one is an argument about emotional stuff. And that definitely shows in the the kiss itself.

 _Sherlock_ is a classic romance, not an action story. “The Three Garridebs”Kiss is an action-movie kiss. I think we’ll be getting a classic-romance kiss because I think that’s what fits with what we’ve already gotten, particularly in S3 with [the Watsons Have A Domestic](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/97647901957/sherlock-and-john-in-the-watsons-have-a-domestic).

More importantly, Sherlock thinks John only has feelings for him because he’s useful in providing danger to John by being Sociopath-Genius Sherlock. **If John tells him he loves him when Sherlock is being _useful_ \- solving a case; saving John’s life - that doesn’t actually fix one of the biggest problems in their relationship.** **It only makes it worse.** Sherlock will try even _harder_ to be Sociopath-Genius Sherlock for John, which will make John sure that - though he loves Sherlock - Sherlock is incapable of loving him. This is not the relationship Mofftisson are going for.

If John and Sherlock can only manage to admit their feelings when they’re drunk or high on adrenaline or when they think the other one might die? Eh… they’re not really ready for an adult relationship. But that’s why they’re having this painful character development: because they’ll need it to get Johnlock via a classic-romance kiss. They don’t need as much painful character development to get Johnlock via an action-movie kiss. But we’ve got painful character development, and we’re going to _keep_ getting it, which tells me classic-romance kiss, which tells me not “The Three Garridebs.”

We’ve _had_ the ultimate action-movie kiss in this show already:

_ _

The cool hero sweeps in after a death-defying feat, kisses the love interest, and sweeps out, on his way to save the world. But this kiss _wasn’t real_ \- and it was kind of laughed about in the show. I think The Johnlock Kiss will have a fundamentally different feel - be a fundamentally different type of kiss - than either of the two in TEH… because it’s fundamentally different. Basically what I’m saying is that not only did the joking kisses between Sherlock and Molly and Sherlock and Jim rule out the possibilities of those ships ever happening on the show,  _they also ruled out those types of kisses._

[Given the structure Mofftisson have set up for Johnlock - “the promise of love, the pain of loss, the joy of redemption”](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/105279839079/the-final-problem) \- we still have a way to go before the joy of redemption. We tend to think of the pain of loss as TRF, but that was the pain of loss from John’s POV, and the main character of this show is Sherlock. We have to do this from his POV. **Sherlock’s only had the promise of love - that was the wedding. So we still have the pain of loss and the joy of redemption to get through to get Johnlock.**

The biggest reason I’ve heard that people think they’ll get together in S4 is so that Mofftisson can prove everything is exactly the same now they’re together - they’re still Holmes and Watson. But I think that’s very easy to do without devoting an entire season to it. Firstly, they’d have solved the last case in 5x3 and defeated Jim while they were together. Secondly, I think the last scene in the series will be a party at Baker Street (like the engagement party in TEH) for Sherlock and John finally getting together (and it actually wouldn’t surprise me at all if this party is an engagement/wedding party for Sherlock and John). Sherlock and John canoodling on the couch; Mrs. Hudson, Mike Stamford, Molly, Anderson, Harry, and Billy Wiggins are all there. Just as he did in ASiP, Greg bursts in and says “Will you come?”

Sherlock and John get all excited and follow him downstairs. It plays pretty much exactly like ASiP, but instead of kissing Mrs. Hudson on the cheek (as he did in ASiP), Sherlock kisses John. “The game is on!”

People keep saying they’re going to get together in S4, but I honestly think they’re just setting themselves up for disappointment. [I do think we’ll have “The Three Garridebs” and a love confession from Sherlock in 4x3](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/96502039387/the-season-four-finale-the-three-garridebs-much), but again, without a kiss on the mouth, there are still definitely going to be people saying “Platonic!” so I consider them getting together as the point where _no one_ can dispute it at all anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> Transcribed from [my meta blog on tumblr](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/my-sherlock-meta). Much more there.


End file.
